Teddy Roosevelt's Grave Overlooking Omaha Beach

Well maybe not the President Teddy Roosevelt, but his son Ted Roosevelt.   After serving in North Africa and helping to lead the Normandy invasions as a Brigadier General his efforts were rewarded with a Medal of Honor and a promotion to Major General on July 12th, 1944.  However, on this same day he was struck down by a heart attack.  It was decided that he would be buried in Normandy with his men and is today one of the most visited graves at the American Cemetery.  He truly embodied the spirit of his father by being the highest ranking and oldest soldier  on Utah Beach on D-Day.  The Roosevelts (along with the MacArthurs) are one of only two fathers and sons awarded the Medal of Honor.

Where is the Statue of Liberty?

This might seem like a simple question.  New York of course, but there is not just one.  Most people know that the Statue of Liberty was a gift from France in 1886.  Lady Liberty arrived as an unassembled puzzle on June 17, 1885 in New York harbor.  However, it was not the first to be created.  Liberty Enlightening the World is the name given to the statue by its sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi who created numerous small copies to help fund the project.  The one in the picture below is in the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris.  What is also interesting is Bartholdi designed a statue of the Marquis de Lafayette that is in Union Square, Manhattan.

One of my favorite episodes in History Channel's America Story of Us is about the building of the Statue of Liberty.

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National D-Day Memorial in Rural Virginia

June 6, 1944 is a date that rivals July 4, 1776, July 3, 1863, Dec. 7, 1941 as one of the greatest turning points in American history. The Allied landings on the Normandy Beaches ingrained the term D-Day in the consciousness of almost all Americans, British, French, and Canadians. As I prepare to take 26 high school students across the Atlantic to experience World War II. We are fortunate to live only 2 hours from the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, VA. On an overcast, rainy Sunday afternoon in May we took some of our students to the Memorial to get a holistic picture of D-Day from those who planned it all the way to the marines who scaled Point-du-hoc.  Bedford lost more men proportionally than any other community in the country.  I highly recommend the book Bedford Boys by Alex Kershaw and a trip to the National D-Day Memorial.

Americans who could not stay away

The Lafayette Escadrille was deployed on April 20, 1916 and was made up of American pilots who in the spirit of the Wright brothers could not be kept from the skys in war.  Some of these controversial pilots hoped to inspire the end of American neutrality, some felt a strong sense of duty to support their European allies, and others wanted the opportunity to hone their fighting skills.  They saw their first action at the Battle of Verdun under the symbol of the screaming sioux.  Later with the joining of the US in WWI, the pilots were incorporated into the American Air Force.  Of course in French style, an arch was created in their honor outside of Paris.  The following link has some awesome primary source newspaper articles from the Library of Congress:
http://www.loc.gov/rr/news/topics/escadrille.html

Washington in London?!

One of the most surprising sights that I encountered the first time I was in London was a statue of George Washington in Trafalgar Square.  This was the last figure I would have thought to be captured in bronze in the middle of the most famous square in Great Britain.  Apparently it was a gift from the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1921 and modeled after a marble one in Richmond.  It is rumored that because Washington said he would never set foot in London again after the Revolutionary War that soil from Virginia was placed under the statue.  It is also interesting to note that around the corner from Trafalgar Square is the only remaining, in-tact home of Benjamin Franklin.

First Valentine

After reading an overview of the Valentine holiday on history.com, I was intrigued that they had attributed the first Valentine to Charles the Duke of Orleans in 1415.  Charles was captured by the English after the Battle of Agincourt and sent to England to be imprisoned in the Tower of London.    There he wrote the following poem to his wife:

Original French	English
Je suis desja d’amour tanné, Ma tres doulce Valentinée, Car pour moi fustes trop tart née, Et moy pour vous fus trop tost né. Dieu lui pardoint qui estrené M’a de vous, pour toute l’année. Je suis desja, etc. Ma tres doulce, etc. Bien m’estoye suspeconné, Qu’auroye telle destinée, Ains que passast ceste journée, Combien qu’Amours l’eust ordonné. Je suis desja, etc.	I am already sick of love, My very gentle Valentine, Since for me you were born too soon, And I for you was born too late. God forgives him who has estranged Me from you for the whole year. I am already, etc. My very gentle, etc. Well might I have suspected That such a destiny, Thus would have happened this day, How much that Love would have commanded. I am already, etc.

*This original Valentine still exists in the British Library Manuscript collection.

Here is another source to explore this beloved holiday:
Love and Romance Through the Ages by the Virtual Museum of Canada

Mr. Bean & House do History

I have always been impressed by those who can cover up their natural accent, and sound like someone totally different.  Most Americans who are fans of the show House would not believe that Hugh Laurie was British.  I start with this observation because everyone needs to see clips of one of his earliest works called Blackadder.  He was in the third and fourth seasons of this highly regarded British Comedies from the 1980s that starred Rowan Atkinson before he was Mr. Bean.  The comedy follows a family through four eras of British History from 1485-1917.  I find it similar to America's MASH.  It is a laugh out loud comedy that still shows the drama of history.  The following are two of my favorite clips from the fourth season dealing with the trenches of WWI.

How did the war start?
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